Green Line Grill opens, more breweries opening soon in area

Side Dish

Chef Bobby Couch, a former Paragon Culinary School student who's since trained across Nosh, the Craftwood Inn and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, opened the Green Line Grill (230½ Pueblo Ave., 310-0175) next to Zodiac earlier this month.

Couch says he's undaunted by the revolving-door legacy of recent short-timers in the space such as Slice Pizzeria, Lucia's Family Restaurant and Café Banzai.

"I'm confident," says the military veteran. "The product is fresh and good. ... I'm not just a jackass cooking hamburgers."

Indeed the El Reno-style Fried Onion Burger, a Dust-Bowl-era relic to which an annual festival is devoted in the Oklahoma town, isn't your ordinary burger, though it's about as blue-collar as the item gets. The main distinguishing factor is a mound of thin-sliced onions that caramelize on the flattop under the sirloin/chuck patties, ground fresh from Andy's Meat Market. In between generic white-bread buns, the meat and onions then mate with a cheddar melt, tomato, lettuce, ketchup and mustard: utterly simple, and a far cry from trending gourmet monstrosities.

Green Line's menu also includes a veggie burger option, salty, hand-cut fries and Coneys from Flint, Mich.-based Koegel Meats, and tops them in Couch's delectable, lightly sweet and tangy house mustard slaw and his smoked paprika chili relish.

Brews news

The seventh edition of the Beer Drinker's Guide to Colorado (bdg2c.com) was recently released, featuring 56 new brewery listings and the always awesome free-beer-coupon-book that returns your money ($14.95) many times over even with just local redemption.

Even cooler for beer nerds is the inclusion of Colorado Springs-area breweries and tap-houses that have either quietly opened or are yet-to-come and in various stages of development. Places like: Fierro's Nice Brews, Nano 108 Brewing Co., Green Man Taproom & Coffee House, as well as Manitou Brewing Co. (on which we've reported).

• Squeak Soda Shop (812 Village Center Drive) closed Aug. 17. On its Facebook page, the owners cited their move to Ohio and the "challenge to give Squeak the attention it requires from 1400 miles away."